Cranbrook Community Theatre’s (CCT) 2012‐2013 season kicks off in October.
Beginning October 4 and running for three nights CCT — in co‐production with Fort Steele Heritage Town — is proud to present “Babe Ruth Comes to Pickle River” by Canadian playwright Nelles Van Loon.
Following a successful summer season at Fort Steele’s Wild Horse Theatre, the play will be re‐mounted at The Stage Door to give locals who may have missed the show at Fort Steele the opportunity to take in this charming production. This is the first time CCT and Fort Steele Heritage Town have worked together to remount a production.
Babe Ruth Comes to Pickle River is about finding love in the early years of radio in Canada’s hinterlands. In 1932, Jane, a 30‐something woman pursuing one dream while avoiding several other bad ones, accidently arrives in Pickle River, a far‐flung mining town in northern Ontario. There she meets Roy, a young entrepreneur who is launching a fledging radio station just as the medium is beginning to take the country by storm.
Lisa Aasebo and David Popoff play Jane and Roy, along with five other characters each. Lisa, who is professionally trained in theatre and musical theatre, hails from Vancouver. She is no newcomer to the Kootenays however, with three summer seasons at Fort Steele Heritage Town and a season with Kimberley Summer Theatre under her belt. Lisa has toured Western Canada with Jubilations Dinner Theatre and performed for over 25 years on stages and film sets throughout the Lower Mainland.
David Popoff is a name known by many locals. David, a Cranbrook local who just graduated from Mount Baker Secondary School, has recently sweated it out on the set of Noises Off at Key City Theatre and recently completed a successful summer on the theatrical boards at Fort Steele. This will be David’s second time preforming at The Stage Door.
Tanya Laing Gahr, a seasoned local director, directs this delightful and challenging play.
“I fell in love with the play the first time I read the script, and fell in love with Lisa and David’s main characters the first time I heard these two talented actors read for me,” Laing Gahr said.
“It was a tremendous challenge to both director and actors. It takes a lot of talent and work for an actor to coax one fully formed character to life on stage; to create six characters —most of which are interacting with the primary characters — takes a whole new level of depth and dedication.”
This charming play reminds its audience of the magic of radio as a medium for communication. Radio gives audiences only sound, and allows their minds to fill in the blanks. Radio plays with rich, vivid landscapes, diverse characters, and swiftly changing backdrops were created using nothing more than the actors’ voices and a few sound effects. Audiences will find many of those same magical pleasures in this production.
Produced by Sally Masters, Babe Ruth Comes to Pickle River will run October 4, 5 & 6 at The Stage Door, Cranbrook. Tickets are $13 CCT members/$15 non‐members. Tickets available at Lotus Books, or at the door.
